资源描述：
《HERMENEUTIC EXPLORATIONS IN THE ZHUANGZI》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。
1、kuang-mingwuHERMENEUTICEXPLORATIONSINTHEZHUANGZIPartI.GobletWords,DwellingWords,OpalescentWordsLetmestartwithajoke,aplaywithlogicalfallacy.Astalepretzelisbetterthannothing.NothingisbetterthanGod.Thereforeastale1pretzelisbetterthanGod.Usuallywesaythatitisanexampleofthefallacyofanundistribu
2、tedmiddleterm,inthiscasethetermnothing.Amiddletermnothingservestoconnecttwonotions,andmustbeidenticalinmeaningbothwhenusedwithstalepretzelandwhenusedwithGod.ButinthiscasenothingmeansonethingwhenusedwithstalepretzelandmeansanotherwhenusedwithGod.There-fore,wecannotsayastalepretzelisbettert
3、hanGod.ButwhatdoesnothingmeanwhenusedwithstalepretzelandwhatdoesitmeanwhenusedwithGod?Whatisthedifference?Whenwesayastalepretzelisbetterthannothing,wemeanastalepretzelissomethingthatexists,andnothingmeansanonexistent.Herethewordnothingisaname,anoun,athing-word.Whenwesaynothingisbetterthan
4、God,wecharacterizeasituation.WesayapearisnotbetterthanGod,apretzelisnotbetterthanGod,apavilionisnotbetterthanGod,andsoon,untilwesayabsolutelynothingwhateverisbetterthanGod.Thewordnothinghereisnotanounbutanadverbcharacterizingouractivities,andanadjectivecharacterizingourselves,ashavingfail
5、edtofindsomethingbetterthanGod.Severalcomparisonsaboutthetwomeaningsofthewordnothingfollow.Thefirstcomparisonisthis:Nothingcanbeathing-word,anoun,aswhenusedwithstalepretzel.Nothingcanalsobeanaction-word,anadverb,orasubject,anadjective,aswhenusedwithGod.Nothingisanadverbandanaction-wordbecau
6、seitcharacterizesaseriesofouractionscomparingthisandthatandthat,andsoon,withGod,announcingeach,No,thisisnotbetterthanGod.Nothingisasubject-wordandanadjectivebecauseitdescribesthesubjecttobeafailure.ThepoorsubjectfindsnothingbetterthanGod.KUANG-MINGWU,JohnMcNaughtonRosebushProfessorshipinPh
7、ilosophy,emeri-tus.UniversityofWisconsinOshkosh.Specialties:comparativephilosophy,phenomenol-ogy,Chinesephilosophy,philosophyofreligion.E-mail:kmwu2002@yahoo.com©2006JournalofChinesePhilosophy62kuang-mingwuThesecondcomparisonisthis:Nothingisanevaluationwhenwesayasta
